Mothership Confessional

I feel like I blinked and Liam aged another month! 11 months!!  Oh my gosh...he's nearly a year old!! I knew these months would go by so quickly! It seems like once 6 months hit, babies just start gaining more and more independence - they learn to sit, self-feed, scoot, crawl, entertain themselves, get into mischief... It all happens so fast. Too fast!!! I was just looking at my kids today - staring hard at them, actually - trying to captures these fleeting moments in my mind. It's like they are slipping through my fingers! I hear the words so many people tell me: "They won't stay little for long! It goes by so fast!" ...and I do  hear them, it's just...it's just so hard to not want the hard phases to end and to take for granted their sweet tiny bodies and cuddly, needy personalities. It's a double-edged sword - I'd love to have a little less demand from them, but then when I get some space, I realize they don't need me as much as the...

Liam is starting to show his little personality! He loves to sit and look at you and chat and smile and giggle! He giggles when you tickle his sides or kiss on his cheeks and neck! I've seen him smile and coo at his toys, and sometimes he just giggles for no reason! He is liking to chew on his fingers and he's starting to hold onto toys and bring them to his mouth. He spends a little time in the jumperoo and he likes his bumbo seat and always enjoys time in the swing. Ava was not a swing baby so this is a nice change! Liam is drooling  everywhere  and thankfully spitting up doesn't happen nearly as much anymore! The amount of laundry I'm doing has greatly decreased now that there are less blow outs and spit-up rivers! He likes baths and hates tummy time! He is still in 6 month clothes and size 2 diapers, but I'm sure 9 month clothes will be needed soon! He is already 15+ pounds! Strangers who ask how old he is are always shocked whe...

I can't believe it. I just can't!! Ava is 10 months old! And she's acting like such  a big girl! We thought it would take forever of her to crawl and pull up and sidestep. And then one week, it was like an explosion of milestones! She can do it all now, and she's so fast! She doesn't like her jumper as much, mainly because she can't get around! I have to stick her in there for dinner prep some nights before Chris gets home.  She's not happy in there for very long anymore! Her favorite thing is to walk around the house with help. She seeks out our hands and grabs them and starts smiling and squealing, pulls to standing, demanding for us to help her walk! She can now pull to stand, and then stand for a bit without holding onto anything. She's getting so brave! Last week she surprised me and crawled up a few steps! It gave me a heart attack because I didn't think she could do it! She has really become an adventurous little girl...

I feel like this month has gone by super fast! Have I said that before?! Probably. I also feel like Ava has changed so much in this past month...even though I'm sure I say that each time, too! The main reason why I feel that way is probably because Ava has begun eating food. I did some research and decided to skip the purées altogether and do Baby Led Weaning (eating) with her. This is an incredibly popular way of introducing solids to babies in Europe, and its becoming more popular in the US. Her first food was avocado, and while she liked to pick it up and turn her wrist around so she could see it from all angles, she brought it to her mouth and she was NOT impressed. But after just a few short days she became used to the sensation of food in her mouth and she ingested a bit of sweet potato! She did gag a lot - which is a main concern people have with BLW. Most of her food she was just sucking it down the first 2 weeks. She's now 4+ weeks into eating and she...

I have found that as a new mommy, I am very interested in what other babies do all day, more specifically, what their routine is like. Every baby is so different, as is each household they live in. Since this is my first child, all I know is what Ava does. I have to say, I felt very out of place as an Army wife when we arrived at our first duty station. We only knew one other person here, and so I had zero friends. As female adults, it can be difficult to make new friends. And what does every Army wife sit around and talk about? Kids. Dogs. Deployments. At the time, I had none  of those. (well, I had experienced a deployment, but we weren't married yet and it was a Reservist Deployment, so it was "not on the same playing field".) My husband was encouraging me to branch out and meet people, and I had to try to explain to him that I had nothing to talk about, since all the conversations inevitably end up about kids. And all I could do was listen and smile politely. ...

Go ahead and get your coffee and have a seat. This post is a looooong one. Cry it Out is a very controversial sleep training method that I was TOTALLY against doing in the beginning. It didn't feel natural to me, and plus Ava was still so small that I felt she truly still needed me and her brain hadn't matured enough to have the skills to do it. I kept pushing it out of my mind, even though it would  make things easier. I have read that CIO should not be used because babies  need  you to help them fall asleep, and making them do it on their own creates a break of trust, a feeling of abandonment, and can "scar them for life". I read a study that claimed to have discovered that just because a baby stops crying does not mean the child is not still in distress, just that they have learned to be silent about it after CIO training. I have also read that when used properly and at the right time, CIO is teaching your child a necessary skill, just like any other life les...